Free Republic

Democrat Al Franken, right, with his wife Frannie Franken smile as they meet the media at their house in MInneapolis Tuesday June 30, 2009 after the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Democrat in the Senate race against Republican Norm Coleman. (AP Photo/Andy King) Al Franken, the newest member of the U.S. Senate, will be the guest speaker at Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry Sept. 13. Franken, who is expected to be seated in the Senate next week after winning recounts and court challenges in his upset of Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, will headline Harkin's 32nd...

Former Clinton political hitman James Carville, who recently touted New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for a 2008 presidential run, is reportedly behind an advertising campaign attacking President Bush for his 1990 sale of Harken Energy stock as well as his ties to the oil industry in general. American Family Voices, a group described by the New York Times as "secretive," has paid to run a 30-second commercial on cable news programs in Washington, D.C., and in New York through Thursday. The ad blasts President Bush as "sly like a fox" for talking down his dealings with Harken Energy, which Democrats...

We linked the other day to a news report about Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's apparent endorsement of Hugo Chavez's attack on President Bush as "the Devil" at the U.N. Now I've listened to the audio, and it's pretty remarkable. You don't hear much about Harkin these days, but he is one of the most far-left politicians ever elected to the Senate. If the Democrats were to re-take control of that body, he would be a senior and prominent member of their caucus. As Harkin expressed himself over the radio, he found Chavez's attack on President Bush as "the Devil" entirely...

HAVANA (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin traveled to Cuba to promote sales of Iowa farm products, but ended his visit on Thursday calling on President Fidel Castro to release jailed dissidents. The Iowa Democrat, an outspoken defender of human rights in other parts of the world, had planned his sales pitch trip to Cuba before the island's communist authorities arrested 75 pro-democratic opponents of Castro last month and handed them stiff sentences of up to 28 years in prison. "The Cuban government should grant the appeals of all 75 prisoners of conscience and release them forthwith," Harkin said at...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While President Bush (news - web sites) served on Harken Energy Corp.'s board more than 10 years ago, it engaged in complex trades with Enron Corp., a watchdog group said on Tuesday. Enron's relationship with Bush has become a political issue since its collapse in December amid a widening financial scandal. The company was one of Bush's biggest campaign contributors. Administration officials say Bush did nothing improper. The documents, released by the Center for Public Integrity, showed that one of Harken's partners in commodities trading was Enron. A June 1990 memo from Harken Marketing, a Harken subsidiary,...

<p>Harvard University's financial relationship with President Bush's former oil company was deeper than previously understood, with the university's management fund creating a separate ''off the books'' partnership with Harken Energy Corp. that helped keep afloat the financially troubled company, according to a report to be released today.</p>

<p>Washington -- President Bush was deluged with nonpublic information about the financial plight of a Texas oil company in 1990 before he sold the majority of his holdings and triggered a federal investigation, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON - Billionaire investor George Soros was quoted yesterday as saying that Harken Energy Corp. purchased a Texas oil company run by George W. Bush in 1986 because ''we were buying political influence.'' Soros owned nearly a third of Harken at the time the deal was made.</p>

<p>THERE are few hopes more naked than those of a politician who thinks he has found the weapon with which to well and truly smite the other side, and Democrats are regarding the story of how George W. Bush got rich with exceptionally unclothed desire.</p>

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Foundation of Bush's Fortune Questioned 1991 SEC Memo Surfaces, Bush Not Cooperative A new GOP/White House strategy went into effect today and it takes its tactics from the old Cold War - MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). It worked to keep Soviet nukes holstered and it was Democrats who they hope to similarly intimidate. "GOP leaders warned us that if we dare use this stuff against them they would slam us with Global Crossing," a Democratic Congressional aide told us weeks ago. Those missiles have been launched. Indignant cries of "You should...

<p>Washington -- It was about the time President Bush started speaking about corporate accountability last week that the stock market began a steep decline.</p> <p>Bush is finding his own poll numbers tumbling in the same direction.</p> <p>In a political confluence from hell, the president and a handful of top administration officials are facing questions about their personal corporate transactions that made them very wealthy men at precisely the time when millions of Americans are receiving quarterly statements that report devastating losses in their retirement and stock portfolios.</p>

<p>"You think we can't chew gum and walk at the same time? You're wrong."</p> <p>So said a friend of mine who votes the straight Democratic ticket. Actually, a good number of people said essentially the same thing in response to Friday's column (Corporate crimes are much too serious for political games) in which I wrote it would be a mistake if the Dems wasted their energy investigating President George W. Bush and Harken Energy. Or Vice President Dick Cheney and Halliburton. Instead, try to fix the mess. That was my suggestion.</p>

If he asked you to release the file, you would?""I would if he asked."That brief exchange, between NBC's Tim Russert and Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Harvey Pitt might mean weeks, and possibly months, of continued controversy over President Bush's decade-old business dealings with the Harken Energy Corporation.On Meet the Press Sunday, Russert asked Pitt whether the files from the SEC's early-90s investigation of the Harken stock sale should be made public. Pitt at first resisted answering. "I think this is ancient history," he said, "and the president should do whatever he thinks is appropriate, but unless there is...

<p>On the Fourth of July, I was glad to see that George and Martha were in the media spotlight together. No, not the Washingtons, the first First Couple, but George W. Bush and Martha Stewart, a symbolic First Couple of insider capitalism.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON - The Senate on Friday unanimously voted to prohibit public companies from making personal loans to their top executives, further toughening a far-reaching bill on corporate regulation expected to gain final approval next week.</p> <p>President Bush, in his speech on Wall Street earlier this week, called on companies to ban insider loans. But Democrats who control the Senate went further, voting to write the ban into law.</p> <p>"This is wrong. It must be stopped," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who proposed the ban. "Why can't these corporate executives go the bank like everybody else?"</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  It is a stock market whodunit that has withstood a decade of scrutiny. Who bought George W. Bush's problem-plagued oil company stock just before its value dropped?</p> <p>The 1990 transaction involving shares of Harken Energy Corp. allowed the future president to pay off a bank loan for his now-famous stake in the Texas Rangers baseball team. The identity of the buyer of the stock has escaped public disclosure.</p>

In an odd way, I eagerly await the next could-be scandal that the left will attempt to hang around the neck of George W. Bush. It has become a perverse type of spectator sport for me. Granted the current "corporate greed" thing hasn't run its course and it may yet "have legs", irrespective of any truth behind it. No matter, should it die out tomorrow, whatever the next big problem may be, we can all rest assured that it will be Bush's fault. If we're to accept the rhetoric of the Democrats and the blazingly irresponsible headlines in the...

<p>WASHINGTON - After George W. Bush earned his degree from Harvard Business School, an accomplishment that would one day earn him the distinction of being the only US president to have an MBA, his fondest wish was to become successful in the oil business, as his father had been.</p>

Saying that "no one is above the law," Jesse Jackson recommended Thursday night that President Bush should be "subject to due process" for his sale of Harken Energy stock 12 years ago in a transaction that Democrats say was suspicious. Jackson recommended Bush's prosecution during an interview on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes," during the following exchange. ALAN COLMES: Should he be looked into? Should his actions be looked into when he was with Harken? JACKSON: Of course, because no one is above the law. ... COLMES: ... A lot of people think that what George Bush did himself...

Recently Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was asked whether President Bush's 1990 sale of stock in the Harken Energy Corporation undermined his credibility in dealing with today's corporate scandals. Daschle did not answer directly but said, "I think the president would do well to ask the Securities and Exchange Commission to release the file — release it all. Let everybody see just what is there. There have been some real questions, I think, about what happened."On Monday, after the president's news conference in which he faced a long series of questions about Harken, Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe...